This recipe for Brussel Sprouts with Bacon, Pine Nuts & Parmesan Cheese is simply delicious! It’s the perfect addition to any holiday meal and it makes a nice side dish for week night dinners as well. It’s not to hard to make and it’s definitely one of my favorite ways to eat brussel sprouts.

Brussel Sprouts with Bacon, Pine Nuts & Parmesan Cheese

If you’ve never seen brussel sprouts growing, this is what they look like. They’re basically little cabbages growing up a stalk. The picture above shows very small sprouts, and they normally grow a bit bigger.

In addition to tasting great, brussel sprouts are incredibly nutritious. They look a little like a cabbage, but taste much better in my opinion. According to Nutrition and You, they are a great source of Vitamins A, K, and C, are rich in B Complex vitamins, full of anti-oxidants, and are also a rich source of minerals like copper, calcium, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus. Nutrition and You mentions all kinds of cancer fighting properties that brussel sprouts have and claim that these vegetables should be eaten on weight loss programs because they have a low glycemic value and are low in calories.

If you’d like to try brussel sprouts, I highly recommend cooking them in the following manner. NOTE – this recipe is likely NOT low in calories…because of the BACON. But truly, bacon is the key to many a person’s heart. Don’t leave it out! {But do source a high quality bacon.}

Let’s make this delicious brussel sprout side dish recipe!

First, fry up some bacon – 3-4 pieces is plenty. I use nitrate free bacon I buy at Costco. It’s YUMMY! I just use my kitchen scissors to cut up a few pieces and then cook them over medium high heat in a nice cast iron skillet.

Cut the sprouts in half and remove any outer leaves that look bad. Your bacon should be done by now. Remove it from the pan so it doesn’t burn. Reserve half the bacon grease and leave the rest in the pan.

Now, take those little brussel sprouts and put them cut side down right in all of that delicious bacon grease. And leave them alone. Let them cook like this {medium heat} for about 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, stir up the sprouts and add a handful of pine nuts. If the pan looks a little dry, add a bit of the reserved bacon grease. After the pine nuts look nice and toasty, add the bacon bits back in and top everything off with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Salmon Street Tacos Approved by 5/6 of My Family

I’m always looking for ways to incorporate more heart healthy salmon into my family’s diet, and this recipe for salmon street tacos is approved by five out of six of us. My middle daughter, Cora, has proven to be my pickiest eater and claims she doesn’t like salmon (or anything healthy really). Honestly, I think she just won’t give it a chance. But as long as I serve it with beans, she’ll add a tiny bit of salmon to her bean burrito in an attempt to make me happy.

The rest of the family, however, thinks these salmon street tacos are delicious! These tacos are a great way to stretch salmon and are so qiuck to make. Check out the recipe below.

How to Make Salmon Street Tacos

The really great thing about this meal is that not only is it delicious, but it’s also quick to make. Seriously, in the ten minutes it takes to cook the salmon, you can have the red cabbage slaw and the lime cream sauce finished for a complete meal. It’s possible to make everything ahead of time for a quick reheat at dinner time too and the slaw actually tastes better if you give it time to absorb the flavors!

So let’s get started, shall we?

Melt butter in your favorite skillet over medium high heat. Cover salmon with blackened seasoning mix (you can make your own with my recipe here) – only one side if the skin is still on the bottom of the fish. Place salmon skin side down in melted butter and saute for 5 minutes. Flip salmon and saute for 5 more minutes. If you want, remove the skin after you flip it and add more blackened seasoning. Remove salmon from pan, allow to cool for a few minutes, then shred with a fork and set aside.

While the fish is cooking, combine all ingredients to make the red cabbage slaw. Place the slaw in the fridge to let the ingredients mingle.

Last, make the lime cream sauce by simply combining all ingredients. If you don’t have one of these microplanes, you need one! It makes zesting citrus and grating hard cheeses a snap! Place cream sauce in the fridge so its flavors can come together too.

If you have time, heat up the tortillas to make them taste even better! If you want, you can even make your own flour tortillas pretty easily with my recipe here. Serve these yummy salmon street tacos with lime wedges, chopped jalapeno, and cilantro. Enjoy!

It’s 5:00 pm on a school night and you have no idea what to cook for dinner. Enter this easy weeknight salmon and asparagus sheet pan dinner recipe! With practically zero prep and a quick cook time, you can have a delicious and nutritious, Whole 30 approved meal on the table in about 20 minutes!

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Family selfie at the Eiffel Tower. European Springbreak 2017.

We just returned from our family springbreak vacation in Europe and I realized a couple things while we were gone. First, my body feels better than it has in a long time. I drank very little red wine while we were gone (something I did almost every night without fail before we left). I had been having quite a few headaches before we went to Germany and suspected it may be the wine.

While we were gone, I only drank wine on three separate evenings, and each morning afterwords, the headaches were back. Hmmm. Second, my joint pain (my hips and shoulders have hurt me for years!) was a lot better while we were gone which I attribute to an overall cleaner European food system. They don’t allow a lot of the additives we find in our American food. Hmmm.

That information has been swirling in my head and I’ve also been watching friends participate in lots of clean eating challenges, like the Whole 30 program. Now I’m not quite ready to jump on board with the Whole 30 thing just yet (I REALLY love yogurt and cheese), but I have been cleaning up our food which seems to have deteriorated recently.

When I feel better, life is just better! Is is the same for you? And that’s why I recommend that you try this recipe. With heart-healthy salmon, fresh spring vegetables, and heart-healthy flax, you will enjoy eating healthy and your body will thank you. Maybe, just maybe, it can be the push you need to start eating cleaner every day!

I’m excited to partner with Barlean’s to bring you a Clean Eating Challenge and Forti-Flax & Flax Oil Giveaway. All opinions are my own.

As a Barlean’s Blogger, I was sent the following products to help with this post:

I’ve been baking with flax seeds for a long time. It’s an ingredient in my 12-grain bread, my favorite bread recipe of all times! Flax seeds are full of omega-3s, plant lignans, and fibers. They are a source of essential fats that we need to stay healthy and anti-oxidants as well. According to healthyflax.org, “The Institute for Medicine recommends that men consume 1.6 grams, women 1.1 grams and children depending on age consumer between 0.5 and 1.2 grams per day. Two Tbsp (30 mL) of ground flaxseed provides 3.5 g of omega 3, more then twice the daily recommendation.”

Flax seed oil is delicious in homemade salad dressings, and ground flax seed is also a great addition to smoothies and yogurt bowls as well. Read to the end of the post for a giveaway and you can enter to win Forti-Flax and Flax Oil from Barlean’s! Now let’s get busy cooking this delicious meal. It won’t take long, promise!

Salmon & Asparagus Sheet Pan Dinner

To make this quick and easy meal, simply preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Blanch a pound of asparagus for four minutes, then arrange all ingredients on a sheet pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes and enjoy!

Well, this recipe is another creative way to turn leftover taco meat into something just a little bit different. And wouldn’t you know, it makes a great appetizer too! They take a while to make, but you can do most of the work ahead of time so you can stay out of the kitchen and socialize during the Big Game!

Baked Taco Empanadas

To make this recipe, the first thing to do is make the empanada dough. It’s pretty easy to do if you use your food processor, but if you don’t have one, you can totally mix by hand as well.

Make sure to give yourself enough time for 50 minutes of cooling – 30 minutes of cooling after you make the dough and another 20 minutes of cooling after you’ve put the empanadas together.

After the dough has cooled for 30 minutes, roll it out and cut it into circles. You can use a circle dough cutter or a mug if you want. I don’t have a biscuit cutter (but I used to!) so I used one of my Starbucks mugs.

Now add 1-2 TBS cooked taco meat, this is my favorite recipe here, a bit of cheese and fold the empanadas. Seal with a fork, brush with egg white wash, and chill for 20 more minutes in the fridge.

Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes on a sheet pan {these are my favorite sheet pans, by the way}, serve with dippers like sour cream, guacamole, and salsa. Enjoy!

The nice thing about these baked taco empanadas is the recipe is also freezer friendly! You can make them up ahead of time and freeze the unbaked empanadas. Then on game day, pull out the frozen beauties in the morning and let them thaw out, then pop them in the oven and bake according to the directions above! How awesome is that? Homemade appetizers with little effort on game day.

60+ More Appetizer Ideas!

With the football season coming to a close, it’s time to start thinking about Big Game parties and inevitably, the recipes you will make and bring to yours! In preparation, I’ve teamed up with my football blogger friends in one final collaboration to bring you some brilliant Big Game recipe ideas. We’ve made appetizers, entrees, desserts and even drinks. Prepare to be inspired, and be sure to check out their links below!

Please note: This post is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by the National Football League (NFL) or any of its teams. All opinions and views expressed on our blogs are our own, not that of the NFL and/or any of its 32 teams. Any team names, logos or other symbols referenced are properties of their respective organizations. We are just big fans — and we want to share our love for our teams, the game and the food that brings us all together on game day.

Will you watch the big game? What are you eating and who are you rooting for?

I'm a semi-crunchy Eastern Iowa mom of 4 crazy kids on a quest to stay sane and healthy. We try to live a sustainable lifestyle on 5 acres with chickens, dogs, rabbits & more! Grab some coffee or wine and hang out for a bit!